A real Treasure Hunt in NY City

[+FishPOET]

The treasure is 10,000 US mint one-dollar coins.

 

http://www.welostourgold.com/

[tacticalemu]

i just heard about that today... and to be honest, i did a search on the site address here and was surprised ton only see one topic... after all it DOES incorporate the spirit of geocaching, just with no coordinates, and a TEN THOUSAND dollar prize for FTF!!

[+BlackstoneVal]

I am of the belief that coordinates will come into play along the way to determining final location of hidden treasure. According to the website mentioned above and the associated PR, the challenge will take place over the next 8 weeks with one of eight videos being released each week beginning this last Sunday 8/1/10 through 9/19. Within are clues and riddles to be deciphered to determine the route that a crew of pirates (they are puppets) had taken when they hid their gold somewhere within the 5 boroughs on NYC. The story line has them retracing their steps to the lost treasure, but the first to find the 'buried' chest keeps the cache of 10,000 'golden' $1 coins.

 

This reminds me a little of the DARPA challenge last year and how Groundspeak with some dedicated lackeys formed a team from among the geocaching community to work through the red herrings in search of weather balloons across the country in hopes of a mega prize. Although the prize monies are not as high for this challenge, the approach could work similarly.

 

I just as soon work through the codes at my own pace and when solved, take a ride to the big Apple and dig up my winnings or partner with some city local, but I can see from the first video this will require cooperative effort to resolve every piece of information presented in a timely manner while tracking a virtual trail beginning in Central Park until that last bit of information reveals the necessary steps to be applied to the end game in the field.

 

Have the PTB been looking at this challenge? I doubt that many individuals could beat the machine and universal mind of geocachers, however, processing the vast amount of shared information and opinions will get more difficult in a forum approach as time gets closer to the end. Could be overwhelming.

 

If Jeremy decides to give this a try, I will likely join in to help, but if not, I am setting my schedule for a trip to NYC in Sept.

 

Happy hunting